Survivor: They keep music alive

The actress performed in the original production.
By L. CROW
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Ela Stein Weissberger was only 11 when she was taken to Terez & iacute;n, a Nazi concentration camp designed to look like a village.
She became one of about 100 children in the camp -- out of 15,000 -- who survived.
Weissberger played the role of the Cat in 55 performances of the original production of "Brundibar," written to help the children take their minds off the misery during those terrible years.
Now, at age 75, she travels all over the world, to wherever "Brundibar" is being performed. Weissberger, who lives in Tappan, N.Y., will be in Salem next week when Salem Community Theatre's youth production stages the opera.
History
Weissberger was born in Czechoslovakia near the German border.
"In 1938, we were expelled from our home and lived in Prague until 1942," she said. "My parents were Jewish, but my father's eight sisters all married non-Jewish men. We always felt more Czech than Jewish. In 1942, my mother and sister and I were taken on a train, then let off and had to walk in a blizzard with our bags to Terez & iacute;n." She noted that the 64th anniversary of that day was last week, on a day in which New York was hit by a blizzard.
Weissberger said that her father had made a threatening remark against Hitler in public. "We were too little to understand -- my mother couldn't explain," she said. "She was summoned to Gestapo headquarters, and had to bring bank statements, and other papers. In 1940-41, they started registering Jewish people. We had to wear a yellow star that said 'Jew'."
"Terez & iacute;n was a model camp," she explained. "There was music, art. But the children age 12 and over had to do hard labor, moving rocks around camp. Then the Nazis began transporting people to Auschwitz. By November 1944, most of the children had been murdered, gassed. Others died of typhus or other diseases. The last transport was on October 28, 1944. Only one actor survived."
Weissberger remembers one art teacher who was like a mother to them. "She was fantastic," she said. "She gave us hope that some of us might survive."
Weissberger's mother worked in the agriculture department. "The supervisor was not Nazi, and protected us," Weissberger said. "My mother got vitamins for us, but at age 15, I still only weighed about 60 pounds."
Her mother died 10 years ago and her sister lives in Florida. She has also been in contact with another survivor, a woman in her 80s who lives in Boston.
Being grateful
Weissberger remembers the great musicians from Terez & iacute;n, and is grateful that others are also working to keep their names and music alive.
"James Conlon is performing the music of Viktor Ullman," she said. "Ullman was a student of Schoenberg. He wrote an opera, 'Emperor of Atlantis,' which was a parody of Hitler. And Mark Ludwig founded the Terez & iacute;n Chamber Music Foundation. I got to meet Conlon at the Met where he was conducting 'Aida' just last Monday. And Placido Domingo invited me to LA when they performed 'Brundibar.'"
Weissberger has also appeared on television and nationwide radio programs. A book by Susan Goldman Rubin: "The Cat with the Yellow Star: Coming of Age in Terez & iacute;n," about Weissberger, will be released in March.
She will be in Salem for all the performances of "Brundibar," to meet and talk with people and answer questions. "I do 'Brundibar' so that children can speak for themselves, and as a memorial to the children who couldn't speak for themselves," she said.
XFor more information on the music and musicians of Terez & iacute;n, go to www.shoaheducation.com/musicofterezin.html.